Oh Arc, I'm similarly inclined. The Balzac quotation is a taunt, baiting me into argument. I often find myself fighting against the cynicism of (bad) experience - which I would guess is the germ of that quotation.

Here are my faves. I have loved all of these for a long time and thought about them countless times!

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words, and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said to-day.--'Ah, so you shall be sure to be misunderstood.'--Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood. [...]

The voyage of the best ship is a zigzag line of a hundred tacks. See the line from a sufficient distance, and it straightens itself to the average tendency. Your genuine action will explain itself, and will explain your other genuine actions. Your conformity explains nothing. Act singly, and what you have already done singly will justify you now. Greatness appeals to the future. If I can be firm enough to-day to do right, and scorn eyes, I must have done so much right before as to defend me now. Be it how it will, do right now. Always scorn appearances, and you always may. The force of character is cumulative. All the foregone days of virtue work their health into this.~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

This one is more contemporary -

Such energy poured into technical fixes: speed, connectivity etc. So little into social fixes: purpose, community, kindness...~ Alain de Botton

To me it asks the question: what if all the effort that built the apps on your phone, on your pc, that ceaselessly iterates to create all manner of software applications and endlessly update them - what if even a fraction of that effort was instead directed at building more robust communities and solving social problems? What would the world be like?

It's not "how have I been," it's "where have you been?" You can visit here and I'm always relaying how I've been to everyone's chagrin , but you have to visit to stay in the know and contribute as well, dear Fuse. You now have your marching orders just don't march too far away.

I AM OFFICIALLY IN HELL!

I live my philosophy, it's personal to me and people who engage where I live establish an unspoken dynamic, a relationship of sorts, with me and my philosophy.

Cutting folks for sport is a reality for the poor in spirit. I myself only cut the poor in spirit on Tues., Thurs., and every other Sat.

Heh. I'm glad you've been well Oh I still pop-in from time to time to see what the talk is, to see if the latest cultural conversation has made it to this little corner of the internet, to see how ILP is dealing with it. I'm just loathe to get into discussions if I don't think I'll have the time or effort to finish them properly.

You should see how many posts I've started - long-winded paragraphs of text - only to abort them after taking the time to write it all out. I think I must have a 100 saved drafts in my user control panel lol